The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick 1: The Short Happy Life of the Brown Oxford in Philip K. Dick

Jun 24, 2008 Themistocles rated it it was amazing

Shelves: scifi

A collection of stories with so much variety, oozing quality and Dick-ness (can I say that?)

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Mar 26, 2011 Chris Kelly rated it liked it

Shelves: sci-fi, short-story-collections

After having had my mind bent by some Philip K. Dick's 60's novels, I have decided that I'd like to read his complete body of short stories, all of which are collected into 5 volumes. After reading a number of random stories from his later career, I decided that I'd start from the beginning, which is well documented in The Short Happy Life of the Brown Oxford. This collection contains a number of Dick's earliest stories including his first published story, "Beyond Lies the Wub", the first story After having had my mind bent by some Philip K. Dick's 60's novels, I have decided that I'd like to read his complete body of short stories, all of which are collected into 5 volumes. After reading a number of random stories from his later career, I decided that I'd start from the beginning, which is well documented in The Short Happy Life of the Brown Oxford. This collection contains a number of Dick's earliest stories including his first published story, "Beyond Lies the Wub", the first story he managed to sell, "The Roog" and a number of stories written and published in the late 1940's and early 50's.

Dick's strength was his ability to take common science fiction themes like, time travel, alien invasions, psychic phenomenon and turn them into tools for exploring human existence in multiple political, metaphysical, and existential dimensions. In this early work his genius is always apparent, even in some of the weaker stories such as,"The Crystal Crypt" and "The Infinites". It is clear that Dick was struggling to survive during this period and submitting as much material to the popular pulp magazines of the era in order to make ends meet. His writing was often sloppy, the ideas are sometimes expressed awkwardly, yet he never lacks in entertainment.

Some of the stories in this collection, such as "The Skull", "The King of the Elves" "Out in the Garden" and "The Indefatigable Frog" show early signs of Dick's obsession with multiple layers of reality and perception that would be so vital to such novels as Ubik and The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch. Other, such as "The Defenders" "Beyond Lies the Wub" and "Mr. Spaceship" are reflections of the deep compassion that often underlies Dick's cynicism.

Overall, this collection is clearly one of a young writer, albeit a naturally gifted storyteller and a man in touch with ideas about reality that most of us fail to recognize. Still, some of these stories are necessary to any Philip K. Dick fan.

And they only get better as one moves through this collection!

3.5 Stars, or grade B. ...more

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